Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has made the bold move to drop £42.5million club record signing Mesut Ozil from his team to face Sunderland.

The German was widely slammed this week after missing a penalty during Arsenal’s Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich, with Wenger admitting after that he was concerned that the incident would play on Ozil’s state of mind.

And it appears that those concerns have continued, with Wenger opting to leave Ozil out of his squad altogether to face relegation battlers Sunderland.

Ozil struggled after missing a penalty against Bayern (Picture: Reuters)

The move is a bold one, with Arsenal needing to win to keep up the pressure at the top of the table, but Ozil is seemingly being protected ahead of future matches.

Team-mates Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski have both urged fans to stop criticising their compatriot in recent days, but he has been the talk of social media since the Bayern clash, with many already writing the player off as a flop signing.